On Tuesday night, CED hosted its latest GRO Incubator Demo Day, capping off the program’s 12th cohort. The event took place at the Park Alumni Center in Raleigh (in a very classy room), with most of the CED team on hand, along with a host of program alumni and assorted attendees from across the ecosystem.
Following brief opening remarks from Programming & Strategy Lead-slash-GRO Chancellor Preet Mankad, this one rolled right into the pitches.
Fresh off their 12-week experience in the GRO Incubator, seven startup teams made their cases to the crowd. Each presenting founder was introduced by their coach from the program and given five minutes to pitch, after which they engaged in a brief Q&A with the judges (disclaimer: yours truly was also judging).
Once all the pitches were made, judges withdrew to deliberate on a $20,000 winner while the audience voted on a $5K audience choice honoree (and while CED CEO Alex Bloom said a few words about Venture Connect 2027, which is slated for March 22-24 in Durham).
Here’s a look at the seven startups from Demo Day, followed by a few words on the cohort overall—and, of course, the reveal of which teams earned comically oversized checks Tuesday evening.
TrialON
(Presented by Cierra Buckman)
TrialON is building an AI-powered platform for clinical trial orchestration. Inspired by the tragic story of a young girl whose potential treatment was delayed due to slow processes, this startup aims to help patients start trials 3x faster (roughly 90 days down from an average 270). As Founder Cierra Buckman put it, the problem is not a science one but a systems one; TrialON aims to bring simplicity and efficiency (which Buckman likened to TurboTax) to those systems.
Blean
(Presented by Paula Leon)
During a customer discovery process, the Blean team found that 90% of women they spoke to about menstrual cups were concerned about cleaning. As Founder Paula Leon detailed, public restrooms don’t provide good options, leading many women to either carry water bottles into stalls or simply stash cups to be cleaned later. Blean’s solution is a portable rinsing system that easily collapses for transport, can be used in stalls, and can itself be cleaned after use.
CareHome
(Presented by A.J. Trelease)
CareHome was inspired by Founder A.J. Trelease’s experience helping to care for his own grandmother—but addressing a problem that applies to millions of seniors. That problem is twofold: Many people of advanced age are not taking their medications properly, and, subsequently, improper medication winds up being at the core of a lot of decisions to advance seniors into more hands-on (and less independent) care situations. The solution is a device that seniors and caregivers can use to intelligently dispense medication according to updated needs and schedules, alongside an app that tracks adherence and missed doses.
Compliancy
(Presented by Mark Shaw)
Built for scale-ups, Compliancy is selling “compliance as a service.” Early scale-up businesses increasingly need to demonstrate SOC 2 compliance to sell to enterprise customers, but reaching that point is time-consuming and costly. The Compliancy team aims to remove the complication for companies with a process-driven approach, enabling those companies to focus on closing deals and continuing with their growth trajectories.
IRB Trials Link
(Presented by Wiguins Etienne)
This startup was founded on the basis that typical screening processes for clinical trials waste immense amounts of time and money. According to Founder Wiguins Etienne, it can cost about $1,200 to screen a single patient, and as many as 80% won’t end up qualifying. IRB Trials Link essentially aims to flip the process such that any individual can pre-screen and pre-qualify. This establishes a pool of screened individuals and enables those running trials to pay only for qualified leads.
Theratas
(Presented by Kelsey Banyash and Sarah Chick)
Theratas aims to provide post-mastectomy and lumpectomy relief for patients. The co-founders explained that roughly 1 in 3 patients report lingering pain and discomfort after these surgeries, and while physical therapy and massage can help, they are not always affordable or accessible. The solution is a massage device (and accompanying support app) designed to mimic the effects of hands-on, targeted therapy, but which the patient can use alone at home.
Real OB
(Presented by Sri Chari)
As Founder Sri Chari explained, an ultrasound helps determine ensuing care decisions during a pregnancy. However, it is not a guarantee that one will be available alongside pregnancy care (particularly in remote and/or underserved areas). Real OB has designed AI ultrasound tools that frontline workers can use at the point of care, effectively expanding and democratizing access to these crucial scans.
And that was GRO12! In closing, a quick note on this cohort….
CED and the GRO team should be commended on what is (subjectively, but also, I’m right) quite clearly an improving program. This is of course not meant to be dismissive of past cohorts or their startups’ experiences; things should get better! But to anyone who’s made a habit of attending GRO Demo Days over the years, that improvement is clear.
As was the case with this past spring’s GRO11 cohort, the group that presented on Tuesday night was notably polished and prepared. While the startups are of course operating at different stages and facing different challenges, it was apparent that they’re each looking ahead in a comprehensive manner. Judges and other audience members agreed that the pitches were simply checking more boxes (and leaving fewer doubts) than is often the case at demo days and pitch events across the ecosystem.
To yours truly, this was a sign that the breadth and impact of this program have expanded. Kudos to the GRO team and coaches.
With that said, the aforementioned gigantic checks were awarded as follows:
Audience Choice ($5K): Blean
Judges’ Pick ($20K): TrialON
